I suggest that you keep a copy of you LW safe somewhere on another disc perhaps. Download the latest basic version from
www.limewire.com (which is free) and see if that works.
If it doesn't, then go to
http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=35986 ... to Fixes for limewire and something there might help, possibly deleting your preference folder.
If it does work, then it is likely your 4.8.1 if faulty.
Let us know how you get on.